A fellow at Oxford and a leading chemist as well as the author of Galileo's Finger and Four Laws, Peter Atkins is renowned for his precise, lucid, yet rigorous explanations of science. Here he turns to the greatest and most controversial questions of human existence: Can the scientific method tell us anything of value about birth, death, the origin of reality—and its end? Or are these questions best left to faith? Atkins takes a materialist approach to the great questions of being that have inspired myth and religion, seeking to "dispel their mystery without diminishing their grandeur." He explores breathtaking questions—even asking the purpose of the universe—touching on Sanskrit scriptures and John Updike along the way.